Janet Neuwalder (’84 Ceramics)
As the Featured Artist for Alumni Weekend 2026, Janet Neuwalder (’84 Ceramics) returned to a campus that fundamentally shaped her life’s work. As a clay installation artist, vessel maker, and educator, Neuwalder’s work connects the smallest, most intimate details of nature to the grand scale of the world, honoring the strength of the environment and the deep emotions of our shared human stories.
Janet’s lifelong passion for clay ignited at age 13 when her mother signed her up for a class. Reluctantly going on her first day, she soon fell in love with the program, so much so that she got mad at her mother for picking her up on time. Wanting more, she began an intensive summer porcelain program at the 92NY. It was there she encountered visiting artists like Chris Gustin (‘75 Ceramics), whose own educational path inspired her to pursue ceramics at the college level. Around this same time, she spotted a Ken Ferguson celadon ash basket at a gallery across from the Whitney Museum and immediately put the $50 piece on layaway. Her deep admiration for Ferguson's work, combined with the inspiration she drew from Gustin, ultimately cemented her decision to enroll at KCAI. "There's something about the physicality of the clay and that level of transformation.” Janet reflects. “How clay requires you to be with it so much but it also has a mind of its own."
Janet creates intricate topographies of "contemporary fossils" using thousands of paper-thin porcelain elements, a process heavily inspired by childhood trips to the American Museum of Natural History. Deeply informed by her Japanese American and Austrian Jewish heritage, her work frequently explores universal themes of tenacity, survival, and resilience. For example, her tile piece Remembrance directly integrates imagery and footprints of the Japanese American internment camps where her grandfather worked, alongside her grandmother's 1919 fashion illustrations. Reflecting on her lineage, Neuwalder notes, "I think the older I get, the more I understand that a lot of the way I become really was shaped by those influences... the experience of perseverance, shared work and fortitude that my parents and grandparents had just to find what they love and go toward it regardless of any of the forces". Through these intense, labor-intensive forms, Neuwalder captures a physical record of the past, proving that even the most fragile materials can embody incredible strength.
Cultivating Community Through Clay
During her recent collaboration with KCAI students in The Conversational Dish class, she emphasized how preparing and sharing food from handmade vessels brings people back to fundamental, unifying human processes. Working with Associate Professor of Ceramics Casey Whittier’s class, Janet and the class spent time at Kansas City Community Gardens, to create vessels inspired by and intended for the garden space and organization. "There's something about sitting down sharing anything food related and you start not only working together, putting together the event but there's something human about it that unites us all." Janet said. By dialoguing with the class, she helped students flesh out their core concepts, encouraging them to let go of their expectations and simply be present with the clay as they designed pieces with a true community mission.
Having retired from teaching after 35 years, Janet is transitioning into a new chapter focused on her studio practice, collaborative projects, and caring for her mother. This includes an upcoming residency at Taft Gardens & Nature Preserve in Ojai, California, where she will collaborate with a composer to create botanical-embossed windchimes and bells using wild clay. Looking back on her diverse career, she advises young artists to be immensely resourceful, follow the instincts that deeply move them, and embrace the unpredictable nature of an artistic life."If there is one or two things that move you... That is your instinct. That is your pure connection. Try to honor that because it may not always be there," she advises. "When you're my age, you look back, you feel like you've gone up and down mountain ranges across deserts, swamps, erosions, but actually it's almost this sort of not so straight line. It's remarkable and as it should be."
